My life in Steamboat Springs and other places
(and plenty of opinion, which you're free to ignore)

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

A tyranny of stupidity

Reports of police action to break up a rave party in Utah are disturbing at a number of levels.

First, it's another graphic example of the culture of force as the first option rather than a last resort that seems to pervade law enforcement in this country.

Secondly, it's a massive misdirection of effort to send nearly a hundred officers along with dogs and helicopters to arrest people who are harming no-one but themselves rather than focusing on protecting citizens from real crimes like murder, rape and robbery.

Finally, the mendacious and arrogant stupidity of arresting the private security guards for possessing illegal drugs that they had confiscated from the party goers illustrates that this exercise was motivated primarily by the state's desire to demonstrate its power to oppress.